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The Pastry Chef's Rich Little Secret

IT'S a simple almond cake, leavened by egg whites, moistened with browned butter and baked into a small mold. But such simplicity is deceiving: the classic French pastry called the financier is exquisitely refined. It is springy, sweet and nutty with an exterior that's as crisp as an eggshell.

In France, financiers have been a staple of fine pastry shops for more than 100 years. But in America, they have only recently begun making their way into restaurants. And for the home cook they're something of a mystery: not even bibles of French baking include recipes for financiers.

You may have eaten one without knowing it. Pastry chefs all over New York serve them, often without saying so on the menu. But it is impossible not to notice how different the financier is from any other cake.

At Vong, Serge Decrauzat places a small round financier beneath a ginger poached pear. It serves as a kind of pedestal: the soft almond cake soaks up some of the ginger syrup and keeps the pear from mixing with a tart pomegranate sorbet.

At the Tonic, cranberries are dropped into the batter, and the finished financier is served warm between a tangy creme fraiche sorbet and a tart huckleberry chutney. At La Fourchette, a boat-shape ginger lemon financier is showered with powdered sugar, with creme fraiche ice cream and blueberries spooned on the side.

The financier (pronounced fee-nahn-see-AY) often shows up on petit four plates, baked in tiny round, fluted or rectangular molds. The ones at Monkey Bar are superb. Using a traditional almond base, Jean Francois Bonnet, the pastry chef, drops pistachios in some, pecans or strawberries in others. His unusual cocoa bean financier, dark as a coconut and speckled with chopped cocoa beans, is a masterly creation.

Richard Leach, the pastry chef at Park Avenue Cafe, makes financiers studded with pistachios and cradling poached prunes; they are like a pistachio tart on a caky tart shell.

In France, what you find is less experimental. The shape may be round in some places, rectangular in others, but the base is rarely anything but almond. It has been that way for more than a century.

Pierre Lacam, in ''Memorial Historique de la Patisserie,'' published in 1890, wrote that the financier was created by a baker named Lasne, whose bakery on the Rue St.-Denis was near the Bourse, the financial center of Paris. Presumably, the rich little cake was named for the rich financiers who frequented his bakery. The cake was baked in rectangular molds, the shape of gold bars.

Nick Malgieri, the director of the baking program at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School, said a similar cake made with nuts, egg whites and brown butter existed even before that. It was made, he said, by nuns of the Order of the Visitation and was called a visitandine. It is likely that the baker Lasne simply altered the shape and the name of the cake to flatter his clientele.

Regardless, the recipe has withstood time, even without the support of cookbook authors and culinary preservationists. There is no mention of the financier in ''Le Cordon Bleu at Home'' or ''LaVarenne Pratique,'' two of the leading encyclopedic French cookbooks. Nor is it in Rose Levy Beranbaum's comprehensive ''Cake Bible,'' nor in Lindsey Shere's ''Chez Panisse Desserts,'' which is known for including French desserts that are largely underappreciated in America. The financier earns just a vague definition in some editions of ''Larousse Gastronomique.''

And yet, it has earned the adoration of those who have tried it. Even in innovation-mad New York, two of the best examples are traditional and, fittingly, come from shops.

Francois Payard, the chef at Payard Patisserie, makes financiers in a handful of shapes, but the best are round, plain ones the size of large Reese's peanut butter cups. He uses almond flour, or blanched almonds ground as finely as flour, so his financiers have a crisp crust and an interior that's as soft as a pillow.

The other, from Marco Polo Cafe and Caterers, is much different. It is made with ground nuts, baked smaller -- the size of a walnut -- and brushed lightly with a mixture of lemon juice and powdered sugar. It is coarse, nutty and cleverly tangy.

As obscure as the financier has been, there is little mystery about how to make it. All you need is a whisk, a bowl, a pan and a mere stroke of finesse.

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A few steps make or break the cake. The first, browning the butter, is what defines its flavor and adds depth to the almonds. You need to heat the butter over medium low heat until it begins to brown and smell nutty. It is best to do this slowly and to keep a careful eye on it. Once butter begins to brown, it turns quickly and burns easily. Remove it the moment it attains the color of a chestnut. Undercooking it is equally damaging, for it will lack the necessary aroma.

The second trick is to mix the batter as little as possible. It should be stirred until just blended. If you stir too much, the gluten in the flour will get overworked and the cake will be tough.

The batter then has to rest before baking. A few hours in the refrigerator, and the flavors will harmonize and the batter will firm up, making it easier to pipe into molds.

The one decision you need to make regards texture. If you use almond flour, the cake will be finer but denser. If you grind your almonds, it will be coarser and rustic. I prefer grinding. American butter and flour are not the same as in France. And in the finished cake, the differences translate even more tangibly. Somehow the roughness of home-ground almonds and flecks of almond skin give the cakes a kind of soulful intensity that you find in Parisian pastries.

Financiers do impose just one inconvenience: they must be baked on the day they're eaten. In fact, their texture deteriorates in a few hours. Once they're in the oven and the fragrance begins filling your house, this is hardly a problem.

2. In a small pan over medium low heat, heat butter, occasionally swirling, until it begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

3. Sift sugar over almond flour. (If using whole almonds, process with sugar in a food processor until mostly fine.) Add both flours, salt and baking powder, and gently whisk to combine. Add egg whites one at a time, whisking just to combine. Do not overwork or the cakes will be tough.

4. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Set molds on a baking sheet. Spoon mixture into a pastry bag that has a 1/4-inch round tip. Pipe mixture into molds, filling halfway. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until browned and springy. Remove from oven, and cool 2 minutes before unmolding. Cool completely on rack. Serve plain or dusted with powdered sugar, or warm, with ice cream.

Yield: 12 cakes.

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A version of this article appears in print on November 24, 1999, on Page F00001 of the National edition with the headline: The Pastry Chef's Rich Little Secret. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe